Heart Beast Sect, No Beasts to Be Seen

Li Mo digested the memories surging from the Book of Fortune, most of them fragmented images.

From them, he learned that seven thousand years ago, Eternal Life seemed not to have existed yet.

Back then, the Heart Beast Sect was exactly the kind of cultivation sect Li Mo understood—disciples all like Immortals of the Land riding the wind into the distance.

He took a deep breath. His mind spun with dizziness, but his thoughts grew sharper.

Li Mo could barely keep his balance. His brain felt as if it were undergoing a transformation. Fortunately, the children were all exhausted, and a few were even retching on the side, so his condition didn't stand out too much.

"Hei Wa, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. Don't make a fuss."

Zhao Zhu noticed Li Mo's strange state and quickly steadied him.

Shopkeeper Tian paid no attention to the children's expressions. He uttered a single warning sentence, then led the children toward the city gate.

"See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."

The garrison soldiers dared not interrogate Shopkeeper Tian. They voluntarily lowered their man-high spears and kept their heads down, not meeting his eyes.

Shopkeeper Tian's expression was indifferent. He puffed out his belly and strode into the city.

Li Mo frowned slightly. The memories brought by the Book of Fortune had already been digested, but the content regarding the Heart Beast Sect was rather shallow.

He forced himself to stay alert and observed the streets and alleys of Molten Town.

Molten Town's scale covered the entire mountain peak, with a population of at least several hundred thousand. Mainly due to the bizarre nature of Eternal Life, the number of townsfolk had been steadily increasing.

The townspeople's corpse transformation was severe, accompanied by strange deformities. In Niu Family Village, bodies this decayed would have long since been unable to work.

But as for whether Molten Town was connected to the Heart Beast Sect, Li Mo couldn't say for sure. He could clearly sense that a few people exuded dangerous auras.

He even had the illusion that the townsfolk were completely unaffected by the Death Sickness.

Li Mo looked up toward the mountain peak. The town was divided into inner and outer sections, so there was an Inner City Wall encircling the ridge.

This was actually similar to seven thousand years ago—the Heart Beast Sect had also been split into Outer Sect and Inner Sect.

Shopkeeper Tian turned into a small alley, and the children crowded in after him.

"Tch..."

Li Mo sucked in a sharp breath. He happened to glance at a Grain Shop on the street corner, and the Book of Fortune, which had just gone quiet, produced another fragment of memory.

[Outer Elixir Hall]

The Outer Elixir Hall was where Outer Sect Disciples of the Heart Beast Sect collected and refined Pills. In the memory, the building resembled a jade gourd.

The Grain Shop, however, was dilapidated, its walls covered in soot and scorch marks.

In front of the door, a shop assistant was pouring bagged grain into an iron pot. He added some unknown ingredients, turning the contents into a sticky, dark brown sludge. A faint burnt smell spread through the air.

"How is this anything like the Outer Elixir Hall?"

Li Mo swept his gaze across the street to the southwest, his eyes landing on a desolate medical clinic.

[Scripture Repository]

"Scripture Repository?"

The Scripture Repository was where Outer Sect Disciples received teachings and techniques, while the medical clinic was for treating the sick and injured. The two had nothing to do with each other.

Li Mo tried to see the layout inside through the clinic's open door, but it was blocked by a Green Mountain Bamboo Screen in the main hall.

What surprised him most was that, walking all the way from the Molten Town city gate, there was no trace of any livestock or birds. Not a single rat could be found in the dirty corners, and no birds perched on the eaves.

The Heart Beast Sect was an ancient Immortal Cultivation sect famous for beast taming. Why, seven thousand years later, were birds and beasts completely gone?

"Children, we've arrived."

Shopkeeper Tian stopped. Before them was a Pawnshop bustling with customers. There were over thirty shop assistants just to serve the guests.

A few of the assistants looked to be in their early twenties, likely hired in recent years. It was clear that Molten Town had a habit of regularly sending people to villages to recruit apprentices.

"Greetings, Shopkeeper."

"Good day, Shopkeeper Tian."

The assistants used cloths to dust off Shopkeeper Tian, but when they touched his belly, their expressions showed unusual terror.

"I have matters to attend to. Have Wu Wanfeng take them to the back courtyard to rest."

After saying this, Shopkeeper Tian walked straight into the Pawnshop without looking back, leaving the bewildered children waiting outside.

Li Mo stared at the Pawnshop's signboard.

According to the information from the Book of Fortune, this place, seven thousand years ago, had been the [Outer Artifact Workshop].

The Outer Artifact Workshop and the Outer Elixir Hall had similar functions—the former for artifact forging, the latter for Pill refining.

The night grew hazier. Just as the children were dozing off, the Pawnshop's accountant, a man named Wu Wanfeng, finally arrived, late.

Wu Wanfeng was at most thirty years old, but his lips had already completely rotted away, exposing his blackened gums to the air.

He hunched his back, his spine twisted in a horrifying, deformed curve.

"Sigh, it's too late tonight. We'll assign the apprentices' tasks tomorrow."

The child stiffened, then hastily rose to bow.

Wu Wanfeng circled around to the side door on his own, which led straight to the side room in the back courtyard, where a tall ginkgo tree was planted.

The pawnshop took up a fair amount of space, and this side room was the most secluded.

In the courtyard stood a single low tile house, its eaves crawling with ink-black mold stains, weeds half a meter tall—it hadn't been tended to in a long time.

Ma Ergao hesitated as he stepped forward, fumbling for his money pouch from his chest, and said cautiously, "Accountant Wu, what about..."

"You'll be assigned to the pawnshop's steward. How could I, a mere accountant, have any say? When the time comes, you'll naturally get new lodgings."

Wu Wanfeng ignored Ma Ergao and let out a cold, sneering laugh. "There's plenty of business in the shop. Though the shopkeeper personally brought you in, don't expect any special treatment. Get some sleep while you can."

The children dared not speak further and swarmed into the side room.

It was less a room and more a warehouse—sparsely furnished, with a single straw mat spread on the floor and a worn wooden table against the wall.

By the table leg sat a few baskets of dry rations. After eating, the children quickly fell asleep, for the journey had drained too much of their strength.

Anxiety was inevitable, but children in this world were mostly precocious; ten-year-olds marrying was common enough that they wouldn't lose their wits in an unfamiliar place.

Li Mo listened to the insect chirping in the courtyard and pushed aside Zhao Zhu, whose sleeping posture was terrible.

He closed his eyes, discerning the sounds from outside.

Once the horizon was completely stripped of sunlight, a beast's roar suddenly rang out from the darkness, even though he hadn't seen a single bird or animal.

Though drowsy himself, Li Mo was more eager to study the activated Book of Fortune.

He stared at the Book of Fortune in his mind, and a profound mystery unfolded before his eyes.

Li Mo absorbed the information, then flipped open the book, finding nine pages in total, eight of which were completely blank.

The first page displayed an image of the brain.

Li Mo understood that the pages of the Book of Fortune could grant him divine abilities, provided he consumed a blank page to imprint his own organs.

It wasn't just the brain—even the eyes, ears, mouth, nose, the five viscera, skin, and limbs could be involved.

Li Mo had activated the Book of Fortune by chance, and since it was within his mind at the time, the first organ imprinted was the "brain," granting him the "Eidetic Memory" ability.

Different organs awakened different divine abilities.

The memories he received from the Book of Fortune were likely just a side effect of Eidetic Memory.

As for why the Book of Fortune contained information about the Heart Beast Sect from seven thousand years ago, Li Mo had no idea.

It was a pity that the memories in the Book of Fortune were fragmented and scattered, and only surfaced when Li Mo encountered something related.

Because he was in Smelting Town, the Book of Fortune correspondingly displayed information about the Heart Beast Sect.

Li Mo's thoughts raced. If the Heart Beast Sect had left behind any heavenly treasures or earthly rarities, perhaps he could use the Book of Fortune to seize the opportunity.

"If I imprint the brain a second time, would I..."

The moment this thought crossed Li Mo's mind, the Book of Fortune fed the deduced result into his head.

He couldn't help but shiver.

If a page repeatedly imprinted the same organ, an identical organ would grow, and correspondingly, the power of the divine ability would increase.

Li Mo gave a wry smile. Imprinting the brain again meant having two heads—a sure sign of impending split personality.

Besides, blank pages were extremely precious. He had no idea how to increase their number yet, so the chance to imprint had to be carefully considered.

Still, aside from the brain, the five viscera and six organs seemed repeatable for imprinting, enhancing the divine ability's power while granting stronger bodily functions.

Li Mo looked at the eight blank pages and suppressed the urge to imprint an organ.

Imprinting a key organ required a period of transformation, and he feared the pawnshop might notice any abnormality in his body. It was better to wait until he understood the shop's situation.

He vaguely sensed that divine abilities were capable of growth, which made him even more cautious.

"Imprint the heart—could it ease my heartbeat?"

"Imprint the eyes—maybe I could hit a target from a hundred paces?"

"Imprint the dantian..."

Li Mo drifted into unconscious sleep.

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